Hoops In Genes

HAMPTON — Edward Joyner Jr.'s childhood memories are colored by his father's long career as a basketball coach.

He remembers sitting beside his dad on the bench ... drawing up plays in the kitchen ... running from a boar in a tropical paradise.

The Joyner family, including Edward's uncle Steve, is inextricably entwined with coaching, a tradition Edward - "Buck" to his relatives and most of his colleagues - is carrying on as the head coach at Hampton University.

"You don't have a choice, and it's in the blood," Edward Jr. said.

Edward Jr. was installed as the Pirates' coach in April when Kevin Nickelberry resigned after three seasons. His promotion - which will carry a trial interim tag for one year - made him Hampton's fourth coach in the past eight years and the first Division I head coach in his family.

Edward Joyner Sr. - the family's first "Buck," after the Chubby Checker song "Hucklebuck" - is in his 13th season as head coach at St. Paul's College in Lawrenceville, while Steve Joyner is in his 22nd year as head coach at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C.

"We all wanted to be Division I head coaches, and to see him reach that milestone - it has soaked in, but it hasn't sunk in yet," Edward Sr. said. "... You want your son to be successful, (and) to see him follow in the footsteps - there's no words for that. It makes you extremely proud."

Edward Jr. cut his coaching teeth at Johnson C. Smith, where he played collegiately and then worked on his uncle's staff for 11 years before coming to Hampton as an assistant in 2006. But his basketball roots go back much further.

As a child in Winston-Salem, N.C., where his dad coached at Parkland High School, Edward Jr. sat beside him on the bench, wearing the No. 10 uniform - with home and away jerseys - his mother sewed for him. As a teenager, he diagramed plays with his dad and his uncle during family dinners.

"They took the credit for showing me and teaching me how to coach," Edward Jr. said. "But if it didn't work out, they'd let me know - 'That was your idea.' "

Edward Jr. also played basketball, and during his freshman year in high school, his father was his coach in an unusual setting.

Edward Sr. had gone to visit a friend in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and liked it so much he ended up staying. Eager to spend time with his father - his parents divorced when he was young - Edward Jr. soon followed.

"It was probably where I learned the most about basketball," Edward Jr. said. "Over there, the competition wasn't as great, so all he had time to do was focus on me, and make sure I was the best player on the team. ... I spent more time out in the middle of the street, working on handling the ball and passing."

During one drill, after sprinting to the end of the road while keeping alive his one-handed dribble, Edward Jr. heard a rustling in the bushes, followed by a loud squeal.

"It was a boar that had come out of the woods," Edward Jr. said. "I left the ball and everything. (My dad) heard me yelling, and I was running. ... That's when he realized I was a little bit more athletic than he thought."

The two left St. Croix through the hook-and-crook cunning of Steve Joyner. As children, Edward Sr. and Steve had vowed to become coaches, promising that if one got a head-coaching job, the other would be his assistant.

Steve Joyner became Johnson C. Smith's head coach in 1988 and immediately called his brother, who had no desire to leave island life behind.

With Edward Jr. back in the States at camp, Steve persuaded his brother just to visit, and bought him a plane ticket.

"I never paid any attention to my ticket," Edward Sr. said. "When I got up there, I found out it was a one-way ticket, and I didn't have enough money to come back."

Edward Sr.'s inadvertent college coaching career lasted six years on his brother's staff before taking him to Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association foe St. Paul's, where he's won more than 130 games, guided two conference players of the year and graduated 97 percent of his athletes.

Edward Jr. played for both men at Johnson C. Smith, where Steve Joyner, now also in his fourth year as athletic director, has won three CIAA championships and racked up 400 victories.

The men were the first people Edward Jr. called after being offered the Hampton job, using the three-way call usually reserved for breaking down game film to deliver the momentous news.

Both men told him he was ready for the job.

"The genes are there, no doubt about it," said Steve Joyner, who remembers his young nephew writing down every play that he thought worked and everything a coach said that made an impression. "It's something he's always wanted to do in his life, and I'm just happy that he was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do that at Hampton."

Edward Jr. says his coaching style is a mixture of both men's influences. He favors his dad's aggressive style of play, but speaks with his uncle's calmer voice.